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The Republican’s move to request a recount was expected, but could not be made formally until after the board certified the results.

Herring’s victory would complete a Democratic sweep of Virginia’s five statewide offices, including both Senate seats, the first since 1969. If Obenshain were to pull ahead in the recount and claim the seat, he would continue the GOP’s 19-year streak holding the office.

Virginia also held a recount for attorney general in 2005 — a process that didn’t end until Dec. 21 of that year.

“It is within Senator Obenshain’s right to pursue electoral victory to an ultimate conclusion beyond the original count, canvass and certification,” Herring said in a statement. “His tactics, however, will not impede our efforts to build the finest team to serve all Virginians in the Office of Attorney General or prepare for the 2014 legislative session.”

Recounts in Virginia are overseen by a three-judge panel, according to the board. Because the margin in this race is less than 0.5 percent of total votes for the two candidates, the public will foot the bill.

The recount “would involve re-running an estimated 712,000 paper ballots through optical scan tabulation machines,” according to the Virginia Public Access Project. “If accurate, the VPAP estimate will mean there will be 100 times more ballots recounted this year than in 2005,” when Republican Bob McDonnell survived a recount and defeated Democrat Creigh Deeds.

Deeds sponsored legislation after that election requiring all so-called “optical scan ballots” to be rerun in a recount.

Obenshain’s campaign is citing that change to bolster its case for a new tally, as well as research on recent recounts in the U.S. by the nonpartisan project FairVote. Researchers found that recounts rarely reversed the outcome of statewide elections — which Herring’s campaign has pointed out — but in the few cases where they did, the margins were larger as a percentage of total votes than the margin this year in Virginia.

A process known as a “contest” could follow the recount if the trailing candidate had “objections to the conduct or results of the election accompanied by specific allegations which, if proven true, would have a probable impact on the outcome,” according to the board. That process would be overseen by the majority-Republican state legislature.

An attorney for the Virginia GOP raised concerns earlier this month about the way provisional ballots were counted in Democratic-leaning Fairfax County, and Virginia State Board of Elections chairman Charles Judd reportedly said on Monday that he was “concerned about the integrity of the data” the board was certifying.

But it’s not clear whether Obenshain would pursue a contest if he still trails after the recount.

Herring has declared victory and, along with Obenshain, introduced a transition team.